


Destress

by CruelisnotMason



Category: Free!
Genre: Friends With Benefits, Getting Together, M/M, Misunderstandings, Swim Meet, more plotheavy than porny
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-05
Updated: 2020-01-05
Packaged: 2021-02-27 15:47:26
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,292
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22129705
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CruelisnotMason/pseuds/CruelisnotMason
Summary: ‘For the team’ effectively lost the innocence of a red-haired, red-faced boy's crush bigger than the moon and merged into an ironic catch phrase Rin can’t stop thinking about when more often than not, Haru stands in front of him, completely undressed, the way he only would in front of a body of water.
Relationships: Matsuoka Rin/Nanase Haruka
Comments: 19
Kudos: 101





	Destress

Looking back, Rin never dealt well with pressure. 

Since he was a twelve-year-old boy and changed schools, he already earned his first glimpse on the hard and ambitious world of professional swimming, and started to understand what’s important in life and what’s not. It always circles back to the memory of Rin's first time stepping afoot a plane, and reminds him every time he travels Australia-Japan and back: The safety precaution at the beginning of a flight that insists on everyone first helping themselves before they help others when pressure drops.

Rin reminds himself of this metaphoric life lesson every time he sees Haru struggle, which, admittedly, wasn’t a regular recurrence.

At least until now.

Unlike Rin, child prodigy Haru never had an issue when he was younger, and therefore was blown over by the storm that was always destined to hit 'I-only-swim-free-and-don’t-care-for-competitive-swimming-Nanase'. 

Just like knowing when the person next to you on a flight might struggle with their oxygen mask, Rin should have seen it coming. But who would have thought that Haru, who never lost his cool before, started struggling in his twenties.

Like a good friend, Rin offered his help early on. They both had started their competitive swim training at their respective universities, and during each short but heartfelt (for Rin, at least) phone call, Rin was more than ready to tell Haru everything he needed to stay in a clear mindspace, or give him advice on any topic. No matter what, Rin was there to help Haru. 

And just like someone helping his seat neighbor with their oxygen mask, it blew right back into Rin’s face. 

It’s not the first time for Rin to feel like he might be used by his childhood acquaintance (friend??? _ Crush _ ????). It’s a fleeting thought, and it’s not like he  _ doesn’t  _ trust Haru, but it turnes out that their understanding of ‘ _ helping with pressure _ ’ vastly differed. 

At least that’s what flashes through Rin’s mind as he’s pushing the knuckle of his index finger deeper into Haru’s ass, curling it the way he knows Haru likes it. 

_...The way he knows Haru likes it.  _

What a concept. 

It all started with a knock at Rin’s door, right after the protein-heavy dinner that marked the end of a day full of joint training. Rin immediately knew something was up.

They are not at the Olympics, but might as well be. Their momentary swim meet isn’t exactly unimportant to get there, which revealed Haru’s intense stress level all the more unsurprising to Rin.

Right then and there, ‘ _ for the team _ ’ effectively lost the innocence of a red-haired, red-faced boy believing in friendship and simultaneously cultivating a crush that would grow devastatingly more serious as time passed on, and merged into an ironic catch phrase Rin can’t stop thinking about every time Haru stands in front of him, completely undressed.

Rin neither has backbone nor the restraint to outright reject Haru. Not when Haru presses his body close and whispers  _ 'I know you can take the edge off for me _ ', a mental image that sends shivers down Rin’s spine weeks or even months after the last time they’ve seen each other. An image that promises Rin to be compliant in this game the next time around, too.

Haru—the bastard—dares whimpering at the way Rin circles his fingers farther South, relaxing easily around the hand that feeds him. No swim training could make Rin sweat as hard as the picture of Haru’s beautifully toned thighs tensing and relaxing in a hypnotic rhythm, and nothing really could make him as hard as he is right now. But Rin’s always unsure how much he’s allowed to take from Haru in return, so he shyly relents to just... not take anything. He’s already taking all those images with him, and pulls them out when it’s late, he’s lonely, and he’s missing Haru. 

"Rin," Haru pants, lazy blue eyes looking down at him, taking Rin in so intensely that as soon as their eyes meet, Rin can’t help but stay where he is, gazes locked. 

It takes a while for him to find something to say. 

"Good?" he mutters, crimson hair falling into his face. 

The question seems only rhetorical considering the way Haru moves, groans and grips the sheets, a shivering mess and truly a sight  _ Rin’s never seen before. _

It’s so faint, Rin already misses it, but there’s an unmistakable nod. 

Something warm blooms in his chest from looking at the beautiful, slim face with sweaty hair plastered to its forehead, with the softly curled, rose lips. Together with Haru’s toned chest, lean torso and beautifully curved thighs, it’s another mesmerizing view that Rin has to store away for later in his mind, as he’s slowly losing oxygen.

Who would have thought that of all people Haru handled pressure and expectation this way?

At least he’s relaxing now, able to stop thinking about swimming or his time for a moment. Rin decides it’s enough and that he should take it up a notch, so he rearranges his legs, rolls around and makes himself comfortable between Haru’s – slightly muscular than last time – legs, bends forward a little, ready to take the leaking cock in front of him into his mouth. He wants to give them both a show of sucking Haru off, but Haru stops him with a hand in his hair. 

"Wait," he says. Rin immediately stills the fingers in his ass and looks up to him surprised. His fringe is hanging deep the perplexed face but Haru's soft hand quickly brushes the red strands back. 

Haru is softly biting his lower lip for a moment until his conflicted expression returns to a rather neutral one. It's hard for Rin to understand Haru at times but at least, Rin thinks, he can't be fooled that easy right now. 

"You okay?" Rin mutters. He stops all movements and looks up, eyebrows raised and mouth slightly opened. Haru looks back, calculating. Then he breaks their gaze and lets his head fall back into the cushions. 

Rin crawls up to him to look Haru in his face. Being this close feels a little awkward when it shouldn’t, honestly. Rin had Haru’s dick in his mouth often enough. Only for intimacy seems like it’s not the right place and time.

“Did I hurt you?” Rin asks. He hadn’t thought about clipping his nails. Maybe they were too sharp. Haru quickly shakes his head. His cold hand strokes over Rin’s arm, a familiarity Rin isn’t used to, really. His gaze casts down, watching the movement of Haru’s fingers.

“Do you want to stop?” Rin asks again. He feels a little disappointed because for all it’s worth, he likes sucking Haru off. He likes spending time with him. He even wishes it would a little bit more than simply taking the edge of for Haru, but it’s okay. Haru keeps him motivated, keeps Rin’s head in the clouds and in return, Rin keeps Haru’s stress-driven libido down.

Haru doesn’t shake his head this time. “I want you to fuck me,” he says like it’s no big deal. He does look a little nervous, though. Rin can only detect it since he’s got used to Haru’s micro-emotions.

“You want–“ Rin starts, voice comically loud before he stops himself short. “What?”

Haru pulls him close by the neck and presses his lips against Rin’s softly, but urgent. Rin’s brain stops working entirely and he moves his mouth against Haru’s, heart beating rapidly in his ribcage. It’s one thing to get your friend off and another thing to get kissed by him. Rin feels his heart and brain melt. It’s worse.

“Fuck me,” Haru mutters into his ear and rolls his hips up. Rin groans, not used to getting some of the attention he gives Haru in return.

“I, uh,” he starts dumbly but Haru kisses him again, this time open-mouthed. Rin loses himself in a comfortable slide of their tongues against each other, arousal sparking in his gut when Haru kisses deep and dirty.

Suddenly, Rin feels hands at his pants, fiddling with the button and zipper. He pulls back.

“What are you doing?” he asks feverish and almost topples over. With eyes wide open he stares back at Haru.

Haru dares to look surprised, hands still mid air and frozen in their position. His eyes are like two deep pools of blue, shocked and wide open, too. He doesn’t say a thing. Rin raises a brow.

They are already a lot closer than Rin would have ever imagined. There’s no way Rin could have ever expected that their friendship would have the benefit for Rin to see Haru naked once every three months to help him relax and get off, a benefit of having wank material for the following months where they won’t see each other. It’s okay like this for Rin, even though it doesn’t mean a lot. He can deal with that much, but something tells him if they’ve gotten any further, it would be hard to turn back.

“I thought,” Haru says, eyes looking somewhere else. “I thought you’d might want it.”

Rin’s gut drops. “No, I—” he looks down at his own hands. “I don’t need compensation or anything.”

Haru looks up, eyebrows slightly furrowed. He doesn’t say anything.

Rin can’t meet his gaze. Objectively, they shouldn’t have started this in the beginning. He never told Haru how he feels and now they somehow got themselves into that situation. “Maybe you should go.”

*

The training the next day is unforgiving. The coach for the joint meet is shoos them around and demands faster times, sends whoever is supposed to take a break down to the work-out room to lift weights. As if swimming wasn’t tiring enough.

Rin comes back from his second round of weightlifting, walks upstairs back to the pool and only sees from the corner of his eye that Haru passes by him. He’s not looking at him, hasn’t given him a second glance the whole morning. 

Rin itches with anger. What the fuck was yesterday? Things were good the way they were. At least he likes to tell that himself.

“Trouble in paradise, huh?” 

Rin’s head snaps back to the guy addressing him. It’s a guy from his swim team who was also chosen to join the meet and currently sits at the sidelines.

“What?” It’s barely an audible grunt that Rin gives off when he sits down, too, waiting until it’s their turn again.

“That black-haired guy. Every time you meet him you’re either in heaven or hell.”

Rin doesn’t answer. It’s bad enough that his conflicts with Haru seem to be neverending. Now others are picking up on it, too.

“Just apologize,” the guy says. Rin isn’t even sure he knows his name.

“What tells you that it’s my fault?” Rin returns and snaps his goggles on. It’s his turn again, soon. He stands and stretches.

“Nothing, really,” he says. Rin looks back at him through the blue filer of his goggles. “But it’s always easier to say sorry and work things out instead of sulking and letting things become worse.”

Rin grunts as a reply and walks to the starting blocks. The words follow him with every lane.

*

The moment Haru opens the door, Rin is ready to apologize.

“I’m afraid you’re only using me to destress,” he blurts as honest as he can. Haru blinks at him for a couple of seconds before a familiar frown appears on his face. 

“Rin,” he says, stepping a few steps back to let him in. “What the fuck.”

It’s not often that Haru curses. Rin reluctantly steps in; they are lucky that Haru’s roommates are out for the night, leaving a space to safely talk to them. 

“What, what the fuck,” Rin curses back. “It’s not like you let me know otherwise!”

Haru blinks at him again, closes the door behind Rin and leans with his back against it. “I want to be with you, Rin.”

Rin inhales sharply, and falls back onto the bed. He stares at Haru as if he’s seeing him for the first time. As if one of his dreams came true all of the sudden.

“Did you really think I used you to ‘destress’?” Haru scoffs and comes closer. He’s freshly showered, hair still damp. His eyes are taking Rin in, slowly grazing over his shape. 

“Well,” Rin starts, cheeks heating up.

“There are other methods, Rin. I wouldn’t ask you if I wanted to simply ‘destress’.”

“Please stop saying ‘destress’.” Rin’s read is bright red now.

“Okay.” Haru comes closer, takes Rin’s head. When Rin doesn’t move, Haru leans forward and kisses him softly. Rin’s eyes are still closed when he pulls away. 

Rin exhales a stuttering breath and reopens his eyes to look at Haru smiling down at him. He looks beautiful. 

“Maybe,” Haru starts and fiddles with Rin’s hand. “Maybe I should have given you more attention.”

Rin feels dizzy at the thought. “What?” he whispers. “Haru-”

But Haru doesn’t reply, slowly climbs into Rin’s lap. His hands carefully reach for Rin’s reddened cheeks, pulling him closer to kiss him again. He kisses slow, cautiously. Rin barely feels his lips but he’s quickly aroused. “Maybe,” Haru says again, “I should have shown you more how much I want you, Rin.”

At his feverish voice, Rin’s eyes roll back. “I would have exploded, Haru. Please ignore m-”

Haru chuckles. “Idiot,” he calls him softly and tangles his fingers into red strands of hair. “I hope I’m making myself clear enough.”

“Crystal clear,” Rin breathes. When Haru kisses him again, he holds onto him, ready to give into him. He just hopes that Haru’s roommates don’t come back to early.

**Author's Note:**

> This story is part of the LLF Comment Project, which was created to improve communication between readers and authors. This author appreciates comments including:
> 
> * Short comments
>   
> 
> * Long comments
>   
> 
> * Questions
>   
> 
> * “<3” as extra kudos
>   
> 
> * Reader-reader interaction
>   
> 
> * Horny comments
> 
> This author replies to comments.  
> If you don’t want a reply, for any reason (sometimes I feel shy when I’m reading and not up to starting a conversation, for example), feel free to sign your comment with “whisper” and I will appreciate it but not respond!  
> 


End file.
